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Japan’s burgeoning amphibious warfare capability has been in the news lately, as Japanese troops have been exercising with U.S. Marines on the island of Guam. This is not exactly a new thing, and has been in the works for some time now. In fact, it probably would have been buried again had the exercises, planned...

Japan has announced a series of initiatives to bolster the Self Defense Forces’ ability to respond to new and potential threats. The initiatives span from cyber to amphibious warfare and fill gaps in existing capability. TV Asahi has broken the news that the Self Defense Forces plan on buying four U.S.-made AAV-7 amphibious assault vehicles...

JASDF Colonel Seiki Kageura, an international fellow at Brookings, wrote a paper on how think tankers and the media view Japan entitled, “Japan’s Defense Policy: The View From Washington D.C.” (PDF). The survey — and the responses by think tankers to the survey — stirred up some things I’d been thinking about for some time....

Japan Air Self Defense Colonel Seiki Kageura, a 2012 International Security Fellow at Brookings, conducted a survey of American think tankers and what they think about Japan. You can read it here (PDF). Why think tankers? During this research, the author focused on American think tanks because they are home to many of the experts...

The Center for Strategic and International Studies has a new report out on the so-called American pivot to the Pacific, and aligning U.S. forces to support the pivot. It’s an interesting read, and spells out several strategic options for U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM), including options that increase or decrease air, land, and sea power. (PDF here.)...

Since the end of the Cold War, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces have slowly been acquiring new roles and missions. Ballistic missile defense, anti-piracy at the Horn of Africa, refueling NATO ships in the Indian Ocean, not to mention dealing with the rise of a belligerent China. The MSDF is facing a more diverse set...

JSW pal Robert Kelly, assistant professor at Pusan National University and CNN contributor, has a series of posts at Asian Security Blog speculating on how a Ron Paul presidency would affect U.S. relations with a variety of its neighbors and traditional allies. Regarding Japan, Robert says in part: The real reason for [U.S. Forces Japan]...

It’s sticker shock in Shinjuku time. 238 million US dollars. That’s how much each Japanese F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is going to cost, including maintenance and training expenses. From the U.S. Department of Defense announcement (h/t Mike Yeo): All aircraft will be configured with the Pratt and Whitney F-135 engines, and 5 spare Pratt and...

ChinaSMACK has a post up on Chinese netizens’ reaction to a Japanese magazine article. The article in question included an artist’s impression of the ATD-X/Shinshin/F-3 fighter downing a Chinese J-20 fighter. Netizen reactions ranged from nationalistic to bemused. Of more interest however is the article the image was taken from, which depicts an indigenous...

Japan will once again send ships and personnel to an annual U.S. – led humanitarian and civic action program. Japan will send the landing ship, tank JS Oosumi, two Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC) and twenty medical personnel to Pacific Partnership 2012. The Japanese medical personnel will serve on the mission command ship, the hospital...